David Foster Wallace loves himself some footnotes, even when he’s writing for the New York Times. So I allowed myself a flash of curious anticipation, even though I knew that when that linky glow showed up on Ralph Lauren‘s name [1], it was almost certainly not DFW-ian, just the automated product of the nytimes.com’s Times Topics feature.
Someday, maybe someone will write for the website, and trip up our robotic expectations with his own selection of Times archive links and comments thereon.
[1] Of the Times Topicked names in Wallace’s Roger Federer article, the first three–Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, and Roger Federer himself–all preceded the first footnote, and so went by completely unnoticed. After Ralph came Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, and Lleyton Hewitt.
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the making of, by greg allen